Originally from Monroe, Georgia, Benjamin (Ben) Smith is an orchestral flutist, chamber musician, and writer. As a soloist and chamber musician, Ben has performed on major stages across France, Italy, Germany, Canada, and South Korea. He is a regular substitute musician with multiple orchestras and is a founding member of the award-winning wind quintet, ZaRiah. Ben has performed on concert series presented by the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle, Bang on a Can, and Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City. His past festival engagements include the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Festival International de Musique Classique à Puget, and Orford Musique. This summer, he will be in residence as a fellow at the Bowdoin International Music Festival.

An advocate of new music, Ben gave the Canadian debut of works by Sang-jin Kim as part of the Rising Stars Concert Series at Orford Musique. Ben also performed at the Bang on a Can Long Play Festival at the Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn–first as a member of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, and again as part of the Yale School of Music's New Music New Haven concert series. Ben arranged Hisatada Otaka's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, op. 30b for flute choir and performed the work as a soloist at the Oberlin Conservatory.

As a writer, Ben was the featured guest author in the April 2023 edition of The Flute Examiner Magazine, where he wrote about his time studying abroad in Korea. He served as a blogger on behalf of Oberlin College’s Office of Admissions during his four years as a student, and continues to write about music and performance on his personal website.

Ben earned his Master’s degree at the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Tara Helen O’Connor and received his Bachelor’s degree studying with Alexa Still at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. During his time at Oberlin, Ben studied abroad in Seoul, South Korea where he studied with Minji Kim and Seonah Jang. Ben previously studied with Kelly Via at the Atlanta Music Academy.

Beyond the concert hall, Ben creates video game OST arrangements under the alias 'fluteyloops.' He has amassed over 180,000 listeners on Spotify, and enjoys finding and listening to new soundtracks.